Currently, digital cameras are arranged to be able to download image files to personal computers, for subsequent reproduction by a printer. Images from a digital camera are typically stored on a detachable memory card. The memory card is inserted into an appropriate receptacle that is attached to an external computing device, such as a personal computer or a printer. A facility is typically provided on the computing device or the printer for printing index pages, that is, a page, or pages, of thumbnail representations of all the images stored on the memory card. A thumbnail representation of an image is a reduced version of that image, usually with enough detail to discern the image from others. The facility for printing index pages may include a menu selection on the computing device or a button on the printer. The index pages are useful for reviewing image files on the memory card, and for selecting individual image files to be printed.
When printing an index page, a user is not able to select the images that will be printed. Invoking the index page facility causes all the images on the memory card to be printed. For users with high capacity memory cards this may be disadvantageous, as a large number of images are printed that are not required, wasting time, media, and ink. If multiple events are recorded on the same memory card, a user must print the images for all the events, again wasting time, media, and ink.
Furthermore, in the conventional approach the images on index pages are all printed in landscape orientation without regard for the orientation of the image. When reviewing the index pages, the user must turn his head or the index page to view those images that do not have a landscape orientation.
Each image on the index page is designated by an image number, usually superimposed on a corner in the field of the image. The image number thus obscures the area of the image over which it is superimposed. Also, the image number does not provide an absolute identification of the image. It is simply the number of an image in the memory card, and changes when images are deleted from the memory card. There is no absolute identification of the image, such as a date or filename, to specifically distinguish an image, and which does not change after the image is acquired.
It is an object and advantage of this invention to provide a user with the ability to select a subset of images to be printed when printing an index page. A user is not required to print all images on the memory card when printing an index page. It is a second object and advantage of this invention to provide index pages where the images are printed in the orientation in which they were acquired. That is, images are printed “right side up” so users do not have to turn their heads to view individual images on an index page. It is a further object and advantage of this invention to provide an absolute identifier for each image on the index page that does not change after the image has been acquired. Further, image identifiers are printed outside the field of the image and thus do not obscure the image. It is a further object and advantage of this invention to automatically select the size of the thumbnail image depending on the size of the printing media. For example, when index pages are being printed on A4 paper, a thumbnail is printed in a larger format than when index pages are printed on A6 paper, allowing for a more efficient use of paper.